Oh friends…what a wild few days. If you follow me on Instagram, you are probably already in the know about what’s been going on but let me bring everyone up to speed.
On Wednesday night I shared that I had dropped a very heavy metal and glass shower door on my left big toe earlier that day. On Thursday morning I taught three yoga classes…6a, 8:15a, 9:30a. After the last class I thought I should probably make sure my toe wasn’t broken. I had convinced myself that it wasn’t since I could kind of walk on it without super crazy pain. I popped into a primary care right next to the yoga studio and the PA took a peek at it and recommended I go to an urgent care facility with imaging. I picked Finn up and took him home for a nap. Once he woke up, we packed up and headed out to urgent care.
At urgent care I learned two things. 1) I should have come in the day the accident happened because the lacerations/open wounds needed attention/gluing/stitching/etc. 2) My big toe was fractured. They sent me on my way with a bandaid and a referral to ortho. I went on to teach one more class at Charlotte Yoga. Let me tell you, four classes in one day on a broken toe was not my best decision.
Even with that news, I thought that ortho would give me guidance on how to heal my toe and that it would just be a time thing. Well, I received a call from ortho at 8:15a Friday morning asking me if I could come in at 8:40a. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the office, I was being told that immediate surgery was my best course of action. WAIT WHAT!?
I was floored. Never, ever in a million years did I think this would all end in surgery. The biggest concern was not the fracture on its own but the fact that it was an open fracture with a laceration on top of it and a whole lot of nail bed damage. My doctor was very concerned about what was going on under the nail bed and repairing the injury so that I didn’t end up with a bone infection. He was most concerned that it had been 48 hours since my injury with no treatment.
Finn and I came home and got I him ready to spend the weekend with his dad while I got myself ready to head to the hospital. I made sure to change my sheets, vacuum the floors, get the dishes loaded in the dishwasher and wash a load of laundry. I had no idea how I’d feel after arriving home from the hospital so I wanted to have things in order.
I also took a shower, shaved and washed and dried my hair because I knew it would be a while until that happened again. I packed my bag and Dorie picked me up around 1:30p. She dropped me off at Novant Health Charlotte Orthopedic Hospital.
The process of getting checked in and prepped for surgery was so easy and fast. I felt that every single staff member that I encountered during my time at the hospital went out of their way to help me, make sure I understood everything that was happening and keep me comfortable. Before I knew it, I was being wheeled into the OR and that’s about all I remember until I woke up from a pretty great nap a couple of hours later. Haha.
My doctor REMOVED MY LEFT TOENAIL (and said it probably won’t grow back waahhhhh), cleaned out the nail bed and stitched everything up. There was talk about a putting a pin into my fracture but thank god that didn’t happen. My doctor came to check in on me before I was discharged today and said that surgery was absolutely the right call and that it was one of the “worst nail bed injuries” he’d ever seen. Yay.
I had to stay overnight because my doctor wanted me to receive IV antibiotics. That enough was reason to stay but they also require that you have someone to “watch you” for 24 hours after surgery and I didn’t have anyone at home and the surgery was scheduled too quickly for my family to come. Honestly, I’m glad I stayed because the numbness in my left foot didn’t wear off until around 4a and it was nice to have the nurses to help me overnight and the PT department to help me this morning.
My friends were awesome and so thoughtful. Dorie dropped me off, my friend Dana took care of Zoey, my friend Winnie brought me dinner and breakfast and my friend Jenn picked me up, took me to the pharmacy to get my prescriptions and brought me home.
It was good timing that Finn was going to be with his dad this weekend but I was supposed to be in teacher training all weekend. I am missing A LOT of work because of this. I can’t teach for the next 10 days until I get an update on how things are healing at my post-op appointment.
Finn isn’t fully weaned yet (we are slowly dropping feedings) so I had to bring my pump to the hospital. Last night was awful because I could not get my milk to letdown. I am not sure if it was stress or the meds or a combo of both but I was so engorged and uncomfortable all night. I was finally able to get a productive pump session this morning. But then I had to dump it because I took some pain meds overnight. Always painful to do!
The physical therapy team came in first thing this morning and got me fitted with crutches and taught me how to use them. They also taught me how to go up and down stairs and even had me practice holding my backpack like it was Finn. That was all so helpful. I got discharged around 9:30a and now I’m home on the couch with my foot up.
All in all, I feel a lot better than I thought I would physically although I am not very mobile at all. Emotionally, I feel sad, angry and kind of stupid. This feels like such an unnecessary accident. I’m pissed that it’s interfering with my work, my ability to run around with Finn and my ability to move and workout. On the other hand, I can look at it as a forced opportunity to stop and slow down. Lately, I’ve felt like I’ve been doing a lot of things but nothing very well. I’ve been feeling a strong pull to let some things go and narrow my focus. I think this “break” will give me the space I need to regroup and refocus.
Wow, that was a novel. I’ll be sure to keep you guys in the loop on how I deal with this injury from both a physical and mental standpoint since injuries are something I get asked about a lot. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had something sideline me like this. (Pregnancy/childbirth not included!) The doctor said something about 12 weeks until I’m running again (which I am trying not to freak out about but am really freaking out about) but he did tell me that he expects a full return to normal movement and function.
Give me your best tips for showering without getting your dressing wet!
What’s the last injury you had and how did you deal with in mentally?
Have you ever had surgery?
